...but it gets a little closer every day. At least this week it's sure feeling that way.
First, for those of you who won't make it to the end
of this epic poem of a post, just know to tune into www.sulha.com next tuesday-thursday for live video feed of the peace event I've been blabbing out--get blown away for yourselves, why take it from me?
This week has been so long, eventful, and busy that it's hard to look back and go through each day separately, but I'll try. Sunday I went with Eliyahu to Shvaram, an Israeli Arab city in the Haifa area, for a meeting with the top Sulha organizers, including Elias Jabbour, head of the International House of Hope, Gaby Meyer, original creator of the Sulha, and many others, including Ihab, an Israeli Arab from Yaffo who, after losing his business in Tel Aviv due to neglect from an anti-Arab Jewish landlord, became a Muslim "chozer b'tshuva" and joined the religious peace movement. Wonderful, remarkable people. We discussed particulars of the Sulha--like, how to accommodate the 200+ Palestinians who are coming in, through Bereaved Parents Forum and other organizations? Almost all overnight guests of the anticipated 3000+ will be staying with families in the area, except for some who choose to camp out at the park, staff included. I got a tent, I'm all set.
Eliyahu and I are the default liaisons to the religious English-speaking communities here, printing English flyers and making endless phone calls to various rabbanim to encourage them to come. it's an interesting phenomenon, actually--rabbis say they're hesitant to come because they don't feel there's reciprocation, but there are about thirty imams and sheykhs attending the sulha so far, and only about 2 prominent Israeli rabbis. So the divide has clearly got to be bridged, over fear and apprehension. I myself have a very good friend that wants to come, but says he can't because he's starting yeshiva. At some point, this has got to become a priority for a good amount of religious Jews, who always seem to be discussing the messianic era, but what about working to bring it? Anyway, I digress.
After the meeting on Sunday, we headed back to Jerusalem and attended a lecture by Yossi Klein HaLevi, the New York-born Israeli author who's book about his spiritual journey, "At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden, a Jew's Search for G-d with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land," got me into this work in the first place, since Eliyahu was his guide into the Muslim world. The lecture turned out to be a reflection of Yossi's own inner dilemmas--how to continue believing in peace as a viable option after years of terror, after seeing Muslim voices for peace being increasingly marginalized by a torrent of hatred for Israel and the Jewish people? Yossi himself says there must be a two-pronged paradoxical approach--unceasing political and military strength, including the security fence, with the ultimate goal of disengagement. We have to get beyond our myths of what Israel should be, Yossi said, including the Right's myth of controlling all of Israel--a reality which has turned into a demoralizing occupation--and the Left's myth of "Land for Peace" actually working. At the same time, we should be reaching out, wherever we still can, for spiritual/religious-based peace, to create consciousness that will one day transcend the current political mess and marginalize voices of hate. During the question and answer period, I stood up and asked Yossi what he thought of the Sulha Project, shamelessly plugging the event, but I felt it needed to be said, and so did Yossi, he encouraged me to describe it and pass out fliers, all of which were distributed to the many audience members. Woohoo! When I met Yossi, I told him the great effect his book had on me (and on Yaakov), how it created hope for me that there were boundaries that could be transcended and work to be done, that a difference could yet be made. I think he appreciated hearing that, just as I appreciated his book so much.
The next day, a group included me, Eliyahu, and others from the Nachlaot community took the Green Sheykh from London and his daughter to meet Rav Menachem Froman of Tekoa, a self-described "primitive settler" who sees no contradiction in living in the settlements and meeting with Muslim leaders,including Arafat on occasion, to work for peace. Rav Froman is a deep, human, powerful force for change, who goes beyond all social conventions for the sake of making peace. I've never met anyone quite like him. The encounter between Rav Froman and the Green Sheykh was beyond anything I can say, but my friend Shaul Yudelman said it well, so, with apologies to him, I've shamelessly copied his email:
Yesterday I went with my friend Eliyahu and some other friends in a visiting of an unusual cast. We brought a Sufi SHeikh abu Khassam, who lives today in England but was born in the ARab neigborhood that was next to the Wailing Wall. This sheikh group up in the womens sections of the Wailing wall, climbing up the Wall to eat the sweet grasses that grew there, he recounted. His family is a Sufi family that were the guardians of Nebi Musa, the spiritual resting place of Moses' grave and a prayer site for both Jew and Muslims. He is known as the Green Sheikh, for he wears these green fabrics he started wearing after a strong vision he received telling him to stop wearing the jeans and cowboy belt he had started wearing in England. He came to Israel with his daughter, and is touring and visiting, praying and meeting. SO this was a very special meeting that my friend Eliyahu had arranged to visit with Rav Menachem Fromin, a jewish mystic, who lives in a settlement not so far from where I live, a place called Tekoa. We and the sheikh got into our chartered van in the middle jerusalem, and unusual combination of folks walking down the street, veils, peos, hawaiian shirts, and sandals-the commonest denominator. We travelled south from Jerusalem into the Judaean mountains and then headed east watching the land dry as we neared the town of Tekoa, overlooking the harsh Judaean desert and through the haze was resting the Dead Sea and then themountains of Jordan. Near Tekoa is the Herodian, a palace/ fortress built by Herod which holds a view to the east of the Dead sea, and to the west and the Mediterannean.
THe bustling house of Rav Froman recieved us.. THere is something very settling about the family nature of these spiritual leaders, The bustle of the kitchen was in constant accompaniement to the dialogue of spiritual sharing, stories and hopes that transpired. Many wide open smiles and jokes back and forth accentuated a beautiful sharing of visions where the traditional Other is incorporated into a greater vision of the We, and awareness of the ONeness of Hashem/Allah was the guiding principle in boths sense of the way to peace.
Rav Fromin, my friend Eliyahu and a deep part of myself feel that the only way to peace in this land is through the spiritual traditions of both people. The future of this land needs to be based on the faiths that have grown here, and are at the heart of both peoples here. This statement is with a grain of salt, given the large number of secular Israelis,
Rav Fromin asked over and over for the Green Sheikh to take the same beautiful teachings he was sharing with us to the Arab public and the Israeli people. FOr the Israelis to hear a sheikh explain that Allah hu-Akbar doesn't mean death to the jews is already a deep step forward at this point. Rav Fromin suggested they both go, tomorrow to speak to the prime ministers of both peoples, which he has been doing in recent times with rabbis. THe Green SHeikh had no interest in politicians, and it was a agreed instead to set up visits with local SHeikhs and mukhtars and rabbis.
Back to DeDe: In addition to the encounter between the Sheykh and the Rav, I had an encounter of my own with the Sheykh's daughter. She's Habiba, my Hebrew name is Chavivah. We bonded, she's a beautiful person, very devoted to her faith and the beauty she sees so deeply within it. She whipped out a tube of henna dye and expertly painted an intricate design on my hands with it. We talked about Rumi, Rav Kook, Rav Nachman, her dad's work, what its' like to be a relatively normal British teenager growing up in a house with two wives and a father who's a pioneering spiritual leader. She's great, I can't wait to see her again at the Sulha.
After Monday, the days were most composed of making phone calls to peace organizations to finalize the workshop schedule and booths at the Sulha, a process which has been both endlessly interesting and tedious at times. The Big Event is approaching, check out the details at the updated www.sulha.com. It will also be accessible on LIVE FEED all three days, so tune in once in awhile, maybe I'll be waving hi :-)
